Could a Slower City be a more Prosperous City?

Everyone has experienced it. Walking along in a purposeful hurry, your progress thwarted by a slow-moving pedestrian, dawdling along the pavement. Perhaps they’re talking into their mobile phone, searching lost or just plain taking their time. It can generate you mad.

The question is, ought to it?

According to unsubstantiated study commissioned by UK retailer Argos, 47% of British people find sluggish walking the most annoying aspect of high street shopping, while 30% say that they would like a system of quick lanes to cater for the high street’s speedier pedestrians.

Therefore, the actual retailer has obliged, starting a one-week trial of “fast track” phone-free pedestrian lanes, marked on the footway through a shopping complex in Liverpool.

Similar schemes already have created appearances in Washington DC and Chongqing, China, so could this be the start of a global pattern?

Slow on the uptake

In the past, the list sector has been notoriously sluggish in supporting schemes such as pedestrianisation in town centres, on the basis the reduction in car traffic would reduce their trade. In fact, the alternative has usually turned out to be the situation. Even so, it will be interesting to ascertain if the scheme provides a better retail experience and increase sales. I have to say, I’m doubtful.

For one thing, it is probable that many people will ignore the lanes: especially if they are too absorbed within their phones to notice the markings on the pavement.

Then perhaps this is because a mobile phone provides a greater supply of interest to people than the atmosphere around them. As far as it’s possible to tell, the pedestrian atmosphere in many cities is rather featureless, even grim. It is not clear which pedestrian lanes could accomplish better results for retailers than, say, making their products, providers and appearance sufficiently appealing to appeal to people’s attention.

Stressful spaces

However, my actual concern runs deeper. What make a city are its people. Buildings and infrastructure should be designed and constructed to serve them, and to help improve their quality of life. To this end, a city’s design should motivate courtesy.

People – and especially elderly people – should not have to struggle to cross the road in a short time, to avoid annoying drivers, or constantly worry about other, hurrying pedestrians. Our community spaces should not be so scary as to exclude vision- or hearing-impaired individuals.

The problem is that we have spent so much of the last few decades designing traffic systems that we think that individuals behave like cars. However, they do not. Cars need lots of space, and formal structures such as lanes and traffic lighting to allocate time and room on the roads, because they cannot share.

People, on the other hand, are essentially sociable beings, who respond sensorially to the individuals and places about them. We have higher beliefs than just occupying space for the shortest possible time. Providing room and time to pause, inhale, linger, and live is one of the great urban design goals.

By creating spaces that make it easy for people to give way to each other, to prevent and chat, we can enhance the social use and enjoyment of our public spaces. In addition, stress-reduction via urban design is not only appealing – it is also achievable. We can see the success of schemes designed to encourage lingering in areas such as Campo di Siena, Broadway in New York, and also the Lungomare in Naples. In places such as these, people are encouraged to stop, look around, enjoy a coffee, chat, and absorb the atmosphere.

Cites of the Future

As a result, people feel more happy and more relaxed – they enjoy on their own. The city feels better, the shops have more trade, and people build relationships their surroundings, rather than switching off (or switching their own phones on).

As part of my research on future metropolitan areas, I have been part of discussions with people from a variety of professional sectors, including health, planning, heritage, architecture, education, and list. We talked about which features help improve quality of life in our cities, making them more sustainable.

Overwhelmingly, the best comment from each group has been that the future city should be slower, more relaxed, with increased of our daily essentials available to everyone within walking distance.

Just because a few say slow walkers cause stress, does not mean we should design the city to accommodate fast ramblers. Nor should we be creating urban environments, which forcibly slow people down. The answer, it seems to me, is to create areas that cause people to want to slow down: where the real is more pleasurable than the virtual, and people want to linger and enjoy their atmosphere. At that point, fast lanes with regard to pedestrians become irrelevant.

Life in the pedestrian fast lane isn’t any life at all – let’s sluggish our cities down rather is republished with permission in the Conversation